The Beginning of the Arms
by BenXGwen Lightning Warrior
Summary: We know how Meiri and Mamori came to Mermaid, but where did the virus come from and who were its first carriers? This is their story.
1. Change for the Better

**Author's Note:** I cleaned up the chapter's dialogue formating a little. Hopefully, it is easier to read now.

Chapter One: Change for the Better

My life really didn't start until I met her. As cheesy as it may sound, my life really did start when I met her. Rachel was a new student at school, and I was instantly enamored. There was just one tiny problem: she was gay. Yeah, Yeah; I know, oldest story in the book: a guy wants the only thing he cannot have. That was far from the end of my problems, bud. This infatuation grew into a sort of longing as time passed. The first time I spoke to her I didn't know what to expect. War raged in my mind. _Would she flat ignore me?_ I thought. _Would she take pity on me?_ I grimaced at that thought. I had a deep-seated hatred for pity. None of my fears seemed valid in the end because we turned out to have a common interest in the show _Kim Possible_. From there, I could at least content myself with friendship. At least, that's what I told myself as I headed home a few weeks into the new school year.

The longing only grew stronger as my home situation grew worse. At the time, I had a neurological condition called Cerebral Palsy that affected my motor skills and balance. Unfortunately, the disability also had a negative effect on my family life. Mom pushed me beyond my capability with painful stretching, pointless therapy, and minimally effective orthopedic surgeries that did more harm than good. While Mom sought her dream house and worked herself to death in order to achieve that dream, sacrificing time with family on menial chores that would have been met if she and my father were not always working to satiate their own desires, the house upkeep was left completely to me and never done quite to my mother's expectations. It became a dreaded cycle, and I was actually happy when men in black suits captured me and put me in the back of a van with my walker.

I don't remember much about the facility, but I do remember waking up as a guy I assume was a doctor injected my arm with something. Normally, needles scared the living Hell out of me, but I was too sedated to do more than grin at him stupidly before going back under the fog of unconsciousness. When I woke up for good, I wasn't immediately aware of what was done to me. As I did normally, I went to grab my legs and swing them over the side of the bed, so I could stand. I was shocked when my legs moved to hang over the edge of the bed under their own power! _I must be dreaming!_ I thought as tears welled up in my eyes and slid down my cheeks. _I'm cured!_ My mind yelled in excitement as I jumped out of the bed and started to run for the first time in my life without any assistance equipment and quickly fell on my face.

"What?" I mumbled in shock as I pushed myself back to my feet to find a familiar face looking at me. Rachel was blushing madly for some reason as she looked at me. "What's up with you?" I asked in confusion with a grin. "You look like Kim when she's wrestling with Shego."

Rachel seemed shocked for a moment at my observation. Then, she shook her head. "Take a look in the mirror…" Rachel said as she gestured to a bathroom over in the corner and trailed off.

I nodded, still too high on the fact that I was no longer disabled to notice that she didn't call me Daniel. I also became aware of something else. My natural, jerky gate I was used to no longer existed. It was now replaced by a fluid movement of my hips as weight shifted from foot to foot with each step. _That's definitely odd._ I thought as tried to picture what my new walk looked like. The image that popped in my head made me laugh. _Am I seriously walking like a girl?!_

When I got to the bathroom and looked in the mirror, I studied the beauty that stared back in disbelief. My black crewcut was now a silky expanse of raven locks that stretched to the bottom of my neck. My eyes were the same dark brown, almost black color; but my face was decidedly feminine. That little detail made me reach up to touch my face. When I saw a hand touch the mirror girl's cheek, my eyes widened. I looked down and had to back my face up because two unexpected additions almost crashed into my face. I smirked as I thought of some unsavory things. Then, the veil of disbelief fell away as I realized what I was thinking. My face contorted in disgust, and I screamed.

Rachel ran in the bathroom and gently held me. "Hey, who's supposed to be holding whom?" I asked as I tried to joke and distract myself from the situation.

Rachel gave a small laugh at the joke if only to help me feel better. "What do you need?" She asked.

I shook myself out of my daze and sighed, "I need to get out of here and find my parents." I growled with a steel expression.

Rachel looked at me quizzically. "Why do you never talk about them?"

I shivered. "It's not a subject I like to talk about." I said with a sigh. "My Mom pushed me to breaking with painful stretching, useless therapy which had limited results like teaching me how to type with one hand, and surgeries that put me out for months at a time with no overall improvement to my abilities with the exception of one surgery to improve use of my right arm. My Dad is not a person I want to be: a drunk pushover at the mercy of my mother." I said with a sighed and then noticed my current state. "Can you…get out so I can change?" I asked as I looked away from her and felt my face heat up.

She nodded. "I'll be right outside…"

"Call me Lucy." I said when I figured out why she stopped. With a smile at the name choice, Rachel slipped out of the room.

I disrobed out of the paper gown, dressed in generic fatigues that were in the closet, and walked out of the bathroom. As I tossed Rachel a set, my mind started rolling through possible situations.

"Most likely, we were taken by a black-budget organization." I said as I began to pace as I entered "War Mode" as I came to call it at later times. "The extent of experimentation is unknown besides repairing my body and changing it on a genetic level to that of a woman." I thought aloud.

Rachel sighed and spoke. "Like Umbrella, they will probably cover up our disappearances by fabricating a story."

I nodded in agreement. "Death by explosion is the easiest to make because it gives the option of saying the bodies were destroyed in the blast."

I chuckled as I looked at the window to the left of the room. When I walked over to it and looked down; I saw we were on the tenth floor of a hospital complex, it was dark, and there were only a few lamps directly below our room. For some reason, the sight brought a smile to my face. The idea shocked a part of me because before the changes, I couldn't look down from the loft of my parents' house without getting dizzy.

"Come on. We're gonna jump!" I didn't give Rachel time to think or argue as I picked her up and ran for the window.

When the glass broke around me, my muscles tensed. My face took on a momentary look of horror as gravity took us. Landing on the ground, I was slightly jarred by the impact but nothing more. _Enhanced G-Force coping…_ I thought with a grin as I realized Rachel had a death grip on me.

"You can let go, now." I said with a laugh.

Unknown to us, a surveillance team watched Rachel and me escape.

"Patients Zero and One have been released, sir."

The leader spoke to an unknown person on the other side with a hint of fear in his voice. "Good. Watch them for now, but do not interfere, I wish for them to discover their gifts on their own." The man nodded in surprise at his superior's words. "Continue your surveillance, but under no circumstances is the subjects' contact with their old lives permitted. If Patient One or Zero come in contact with relatives, eliminate the families. Weapons are no good to us if we cannot use them, and the virus is designed to only activate when the subjects are the most intimate with each other. Encouraging closeness with tragedy is open for use if the need arises."

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	2. Rachel Meets my Family

Chapter Two: Rachel Meets my Family

As Rachel and I ran down the street under the cover of night, I couldn't help thinking of my family. I would get back to them. I had to get back to them. That would come later. Right now, I needed to orient us and was looking for anything- a newspaper, map, or a familiar landmark. I looked at Rachel.

"Does anything look familiar?" I asked her as we walked along the sidewalk in an isolated part of the city we were in.

Rachel angrily shook her head. "No and that's what aggravates me!" She said as she looked at me with her brows furrowed in annoyance.

I looked around the city. It was mostly dark, but there were a few shops and clubs still open. I breathed a sigh of relief as I saw I could read the shop names. _Well, we are in a city dominated by an English-speaking population,_ I thought as Rachel suddenly smiled and surged forward toward a small shop.

"What?" I asked as I raised an eyebrow at her actions.

Rachel looked around the window of the shop and noticed the analog clock on the wall. "2255…" she mumbled as I translated, _10:55 PM._

Noticing the magazine rack, I looked and saw that the newest issue on display was from March of 2019. _Eight years?!_ I thought in shock.

Rachel walked up behind me and smiled as she wrapped her arms around my neck. "We'll find out where we are, and go back home." Rachel promised before she kissed my cheek.

I froze at her unsolicited show of affection. "What was that for?" I asked as I tried to focus on her and ignore the fact that my voice sounded so feminine and alien compared to the baritone I had become accustomed to.

"You seemed anxious." Rachel told me soothingly. "I was trying to calm you down."

I smiled at her and felt something I'd never felt before as she kissed me on the cheek, and I looked into her eyes in the light of a distant street lamp: freedom. For the first time in my life, I could say I was truly free. My parents probably thought I was dead. (Even if they thought so, I doubt it would affect the workaholics too much.) I had no grounding and could be anywhere in the world. The thought should have been terrifying, but I was absolutely thrilled. Then, a question slammed into my mind. _Do I really want to go back to the chains of the dysfunctional family I had?_ The answer of course was a resounding no. A gentle hand squeezing my arm brought me out of my musings. When I looked up, I wasn't prepared for the beauty in Rachel's face.

"You may hate your family for what they did to you, Lucy," Rachel spoke softly. "It's been eight years, your body has been completely overhauled, and you have me."

There was no way in hell I could've turned down her pleading eyes. _Damn it! I'm whipped already!_ I thought as a small grin passed my lips. "Fine…" I said with a shake of my head. "We'll find my family." I told her as a part of me commented, _She should have those eyes registered as lethal weapons._

Returning myself to the task, I looked around. _I wonder where we are?_ I thought as I renewed the search for a map or landmark. Walking past a cell phone shop, I looked at Rachel for a moment. When she gave an urgent nod, I walked up to the door of the store and tried the knob. Imagine my shock when I turned the knob. It gave some resistance, but relented with an ear-splitting shriek as the locking mechanism yielded to me.

Once we were inside, Rachel picked up a phone plugged into a charging station and quickly found the phone's GPS. After a few moments, Rachel nodded at something on the screen and looked at me.

"So, where are we?" I asked her calmly.

The brunette looked up from the device, her face drained of color. "We're in Oklahoma."

"Say again?" I asked with a disbelieving expression on my face.

"You heard me." Rachel said before she walked over to me and showed me the phone.

I nodded. _An entire simulated environment underground isn't that weird._ I thought with a shrug. _After all, they did it in the Resident Evil Franchise._ "The million dollar question is: How do we get topside?" I mumbled as we continued walking.

Silence ruled for most of the walk around the darkened street. As I was about to ask Rachel to find a place to camp for the night, I heard the rant whine of an electric motor and smiled. Even with all the insulation, it wasn't hard to identify as an elevator motor. I grinned at the thought and motioned for Rachel to stay close and silent. All I got was a nod, but there was a fire in her eyes that suggested I was about to get a show of sorts.

Rachel charged, rushing toward the unsuspecting guards in a flash. Her fists a blur, the woman made my mouth go dry as I watched her take down the men with relative ease. When I was able to come back from my shock-induced stupor, a blush added deep red to my cheeks. I walked over to her. It took me a moment to realize what exactly had happened in that span of time because my brain was currently trying its best to reboot.

"Well, someone liked what she saw." Rachel teased.

"W-what?"

It was then my brain came back online. I could feel a strange sensation between my legs. It took only a moment for the events to click into place. Once they did, my eyes widened in shock as my brain finally started to get traction. My entire body radiated heat from embarrassment as looked away from Rachel on embarrassment. What did the bitch do? She laughed at me!

I glared at her. "You think me being embarrassed by this new body is funny?"

She smiled and looked at me. "Come on, Babe."

 _Babe?_ My mind questioned, briefly getting sidetracked.

"You have to admit," she told me gently. "Your reaction to me fighting was pretty comical."

I sighed. "You're right." I said as we got in the elevator and started up to Rachel Meets my Familyground level. "It was kinda funny, but could you please let me get used to this first?"

She nodded and grinned at me. "We're quite the pair."

I looked at her. "What do you mean?"

Rachel shook her head and looked ahead as we seemed to come out of the elevator in an office building. Looking around, I saw there was almost no one in the building. I sighed at the welcome respite and ran for the door with Rachel in tow. Once I fixed the door open like I did with the cell phone shop, Rachel and I ran out of the building and started with our destination in the east.

After a few days of a combination of walking and hitchhiking, we made it within walking distance of the compound. Compound was not a far exaggerated term for the place I spent most of my life because it was set up much like one. The main house was a large two-story log cabin while trailers were strewn about the thirty acres. The log cabin itself was a hodgepodge of two conflicting styles. The house had the ascetic of a mountain cabin, but at the same time, the inside was modern. The design never made sense to me, but it was no longer my problem to gripe about the very poorly insulated home.

As we walked up the quarter mile drive, I noticed absolutely everyone seemed to be gathered outside in between the pool and back porch at a recently constructed pavilion. I groaned and squeezed Rachel's hand in fear. She looked at me and smiled.

"They can't be that bad." Rachel said gently as she tried to soothe my fears.

I barked a short laugh. "You didn't live with them for eighteen years."

Just as I was about to meet my family again after eight years of absence, I heard something I hoped to never hear. A large ICBM coming in at just under 500 miles an hour.

 _They tracked us!_ I thought in anger as I turned to the family, obviously oblivious to the incoming death from above. I shook my head. _How the hell am I going to stop…?_ My mind froze as I saw Rachel. _I must be insane._ I thought before I rushed over to her and kissed her deeply. Passion proved to have bizarre effects on the woman. There was a bright royal blue flash of light that danced around her. A moment later, I held a large plasma cannon that reminded me of a Fuel Rod Gun from _Halo: CE_. I grinned, looked Rachel's Arm over for a moment, thought _Momma like…_ , and shouldered my girlfriend-turned-weapon with ease. _They may hate me,_ I thought as I glared at the target of my rage: a rapidly growing point that loomed overhead. _…but they shouldn't die for their ignorance._ I thought as my face tensed in anticipation.

" _Sayonara,_ sucker!" I growled as I fired.

The rocket exploded when it came in contact with the metallic blue orb contacted its target. The thunderously loud BOOM! made all the dogs erupt in fits of barking. As pieces of the missile rained down behind me, Rachel returned to her human form with a flash of blue light. Everyone just stared at me in stunned silence as flaming wreckage continued to come down around me.

"Um…hi?" I managed to say as I continued to hold Rachel in my arms like a porcelain doll until she began to stir. "We need to talk."

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